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(No Model.)

B. S. LEAYORAFT.

PNEUMATIC APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING PARGELS. No. 304,834. Patented Sept. 9, 1884.

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Unrrno STATES PATENT @rricir.

EDW'IN S. LEAYORAFT, OE JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

PNEUMATIC APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING PARCELS.

ESPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 304,834, dated September 9, 1884.

/ l A pplicntiou filed March 23, 1863. (No model.)

ings, is a full, clear, and accurate description.

My invention consists in providing receiving-apartments in a circuit of a pneumatic system of such size and so constructed that persons can be employed therein without interrupting the action of the air in the circuit or being inconvenienced by the action of the aircurrent.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a sectional view of one of the apartments of my invention, and Fig. 2 a plan view of the same.

A represents a tightly-closing apartment, room, or box of such a size that one or more persons can move freely therein, packing and addressing such parcels as may be sent into said apartment. This apartment is provided with an opening, B, and door D, which door so fits the opening B that when closed no air is admitted through vsaid opening. Outside the opening B is the vestibule 0, having a corresponding opening and door, D, which, when shut, prevents any air entering the vestibule from the outside. The opening B, with its door D, may be provided with any other suitable airlock instead of this vestibule O. The only object of the door D and its attachment, vestibule O, and door D, is to provide means for allowing persons to enter the apartment A, and afterward close the opening through which entrance is obtained, so that no air should enter through the opening, and any means of effecting this may be employed.

Fis a tube attached to and opening into the apartment A, and connected at the other end with the pipe or tube of the circuit leading to the pump, which serves to give circulation of air through the circuit.

E E are other pipes opening into the apartment A, and connected either directly with the stations in the circuit from which it is de sired to send parcels to the apartment A, or by suitable switches with the tubes of the circuit leading to such stations. In the apartment A, at the open ends of the tubes, are placed suitable receivers, G, preferably made of four or more stiff metal rods, bent into the form of a scroll, which serve to receive the parcels on their discharge from the pipe.

It will be understood that when the door D of the opening B is closed and a current is and through the pipes E E. If, on the other hand, the pump sucks the air from the apartnientA through the pipe F, there must a corresponding quantity of air pass through the pipes E from the outside into the apartment A.

In the drawings the air is represented by the arrows as being sucked through the pipe F from the apartment, and consequently through the pipes E into the apartment.

The operation of my invention is as follows: The employs, clerks, &c., enter the apartment A through the opening D, and closing it, a current being established in the pneumatic circuit air, for example, being sucked toward the exhaust-pumpa certain quantity of air is pumped from the room A through the pipe F and its connections. A quantity of air equal to this must be supplied to the room through the pipes E from the outside, and thus a current is established from the outside stations at the outlets of the pipes E into the room A at the openings of said pipes E into said room; but the quantity of air so moved at the openings E and F are so small in comparison to the whole quantity of air in the room that no perceptible effect or change in the main body of air is noticed by the persons in the room. Now, if at the outside stations of the pipes E parcels or carriers areintroduced, they will be carried by the current to the room A and received in the receivers G. Here they are properly handled and packed, and receive proper attention from the clerks, and may be, if proper switches are used in the pipes E and F, returned to any outside station desired; or the packages can be directly removed by hand through the opening B.

It will be seen that my invention is especially adapted for use in what are known as local circuits-such as stores, for eXamplcwhere a pneumatic tube is used to convey money from salesmen at the counters to cashiers in a different part of the store and back again, or to send the goods when purchased to the packing-room to be packed.

By having such an apartment as above described I am enabled to dispense with the great number of receiving-instruments which otherwise-if the cashiers, for instance, were located in a room not a part of the circuit-would have to be provided; also, I am enabled to dispense with receiving-instruments, which it would be necessary to have in a similarly-disconnected packing-room. My improved apartment being in reality a part of the pneumatic circuit, the handling of the money and goods in the apartment and their redelivcry at their places of final destination in said store become greatly facilitated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A receiving-apartment placed in the circuit of a pneumatic system of such size that persons can be employed therein without interrupting the current of the air in the circuit or being inconvenienced by the action of the aircurrent, and so connected with the pipes of said pneumatic circuit that when the opening through which persons enter is closed no air can enter or escape from said apartment, except through the pipes of the pneumatic cir cuit.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of March, 1883.

CHARLES G. 00E, R. T. VAN BOSKEROK. 

